I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to electronics, and more specifically to techniques for generating bias voltage for transistors in mixers and other circuits.
II. Background
Transistors are active circuit components commonly used in various circuits such as mixers. A mixer is a circuit that receives an input signal at an input frequency and a local oscillator (LO) signal at an LO frequency, frequency converts the input signal with the LO signal, and provides an output signal at an output frequency, which is determined by the input frequency and the LO frequency. A mixer may be used to frequency downconvert an input radio frequency (RF) signal from RF to baseband. A mixer may also be used to frequency upconvert an input baseband signal from baseband to RF.
A mixer may be required to have good linearity, which may be quantified by second order input intercept point (IIP2), residual side band (RSB), etc. Good linearity may be challenging to obtain because the electrical characteristics of transistors in a mixer may vary due to various factors such as variations in integrated circuit (IC) process, temperature, etc.